AUGUSTA, Maine — So far this year, Gov. Paul LePage has submitted 41 bills, including 10 budget bills, of which only six have seen their way to final disposition.
As governor, LePage is free to propose new bills at any time before the Legislature’s adjournment. In 2014, for example, he unveiled two bills late on the evening of April 30, when lawmakers already finished their business for the session but were returning to consider overriding dozens of the governor’s vetoes.
This year, LePage has seen more than 20 of his bills referenced to legislative committees since the beginning of May.
With at least three weeks left in the legislative session, LePage has time to propose more bills, which makes sense from a publicity point of view. With some 1,400 bills from legislators already through the process, LePage submitting his bills late gives them higher public exposure and presumably more undivided attention from the Legislature.
What’s pending? Several energy bills, a bid to fund and revive the Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s Capitol Connection program, his high-profile effort to ask Maine voters whether they want to eliminate the income tax and efforts to change the way constitutional officers are elected or appointed, to name a few.
The bills that have made it through legislative committees have, for the most part, garnered party-line support from Republicans and rejection from Democrats. That, coupled with the fact they come from LePage, is an indication each will consume considerable attention at a juncture where the Legislature still has a lot to do and not much time to do it.
To peruse the governor’s bills, including links to the bills’ language and data about where they stand in the process, check out the interactive graphic below.
